A+GPB 420W Titanium Power Supply Review
We have taken a good look at power supplies from A+GPB and agree that A+GPB makes quality power supplies with lots of power and do not break the bank in price. Today we help support the release of their new power supplies, which have Titanium coating. Your looking at the A+GPB 420W Titanium power supply today.
The box
The power supply arrived in a big corrugated box via UPS and was not damaged during transit. White Styrofoam bits inside the box protected the unit.
This new 420W power supply is the first model on the Titanium series line. The box is the usual A+GPB style of boxes that provides a clear picture in the middle and information on the back. It actually says "So Silent, Did you turn it off?". Again you have your 3-year warranty sticker on the front. So if anything goes wrong, A+GPB with fix it for you.
What you get when you purchase this power supply are the following:
- The 420W power supply
- Power cable
- Mounting Screws
- Zip-ties for wire management
Once again we have strong first impressions of this unit. The unit is a bit heavy as typical with A+GPB models. The main unit looks really gorgeous. The aluminum housing has Titanium coating, which A+GPB says it will never rust, and avoids EMI interference. The unit is very reflective and has an embedded True Silent appliqué on top.
Specifications
- True Silent Technology Inside
- Case Fan Controlling Connector
- With Serial ATA HD Connector
- Fold Plated connector Pin
- Electric-Shock-Free Protection
- OVP (Over Voltage Protection)
- OCP (Over Current Protection)
- OTP (Over Temperature Protection)
- SCP (Short Circuit Protection)
- Scan-Disc-Free Protection(PS_Off #>2ms)
- Stable
Regulation for +5V, +3.3V, +12V, at +/- 5%
Again you have all the great features of protection and a SATA connector. This unit has a peak load of 448W so you have lots of extra power if you actually need it.
+3.3V |
+5V |
-5V |
+12V |
-12V |
+5VSB |
28A |
42A |
0.5A |
18A |
1A |
2A |
This unit has 1 ATX cable, 1 P4 connector, 1 Aux connector, 9 IDE (1 for SATA), 2 FDD, and 3 fan connections. They sport the usual gold plated theme along with the rear fan grill. What is different here is that we see the introduction of the SATA cable. This is becoming standard and A+GPB recognizes this. However we would have liked to see two Serial ATA connectors for RAID. They are off adaptor type and are not the ones integrated to the power supply source. The cables are relatively long and are enough for tall cases. The other thing I noticed is that you have connectors that are specifically designed to draw power for fans. This is a great idea so you can have the other Molex for all your other power drawing devices. Lastly, we notice that the ATX cable is not sleeved. So you are going to have find ways to keep all the wires from dangling.
The rear of the power supply unit has a sleeve bearing “Globe” fan that will dissipate the hot air out from the system. It is the typical 80mm solution. We have used Globe fans in the past and this one pulls good amount of air outwards and is very quiet. I actually did not even notice that the power supply was on the first time I fired it up without any system components installed. All the air of course has to be transferred out from the other side to the fan. The slits provide ample room for air to flow in for the fan to pull the air out. We would like to see bigger slits or a honeycomb design for this single fan solution.
The inside in very clean and has two blocks of aluminum that helps pull hot air out quicker
Testing
Testing is the same as usual; about two days of using the power supply in the test system and recording the idle voltages and load voltages.
Results
Idle
(30 mins) |
Load
(Toast 5 mins) |
+12V
= 11.73 |
+12V
= 11.61 |
+5V
= 5.05 |
+5V
= 5.00 |
-12V
= -12.52 |
-12V
= -12.55 |
-5V
= -5.20 |
-5V
= -5.19 |
The voltages faired well for the most. Some areas that were a little high was the -12V line and the -5V line, but the -5V as we learned is basically for powering ISA devices which are pretty much obsolete. There was no instability issues during testing. In comparison to the A+GPB 450W unit, the 450W does better.
- Movie of it in action - WMP 9 (sound, and yes the camera has the crackly noise. But you can't hear the PSU because it's quiet)
Conclusion
The A+GPB 420W Titanium series power supply is a good unit. It packs good power and is very silent. I would think that this would make a great power supply for a HTPC or a quiet PC for that matter. There were small gimmicks though. The ATX cable was not sleeved, we would have liked to have 2 SATA connectors for people doing RAID and there was some lines that were a bit out of spec. We would suggest staying with the 450W model. It's about the same price and you could add a SATA adaptor for relatively cheap ($3 in fact). However, if you do pick this up, it's not a bad power supply. I'm just relative to pricing and if you compare the voltage lines, the 450W unit does it better.
I rate the A+GPB 420W power supply a…
8/10!
Pros and Cons
+
Titanium coating
+ Sexy
+ Powerful and silent
- 2 SATA connectors wouldn’t hurt
- ATX cable is not sleeved
- Some cooling issues
- 12V a bit high
I would like to thank A+GPB Inc for making this review possible.
Alternative Pricing
- Newegg - $51.00U.S
